As with Spanish, the vowels are "pure" vowel sounds--there is no "glide" into
or away from the vowels. The following table gives details on the vowel
pronunciation using Spanish and English equivalents and descriptions.
Sample words are given in parentheses.

Cabécar

Spanish

English

Description

a
(ata)

a

"ah"

low central vowel, like vowel in "not"

e
(le)

e

"eh"

mid front vowel, as in "bet", but a little higher

i
(nima)

i

"ee"

high front vowel, like vowel in "meet", but without the
glide (like Spanish "si")

o
(doco)

o

"oh"

mid back vowel, like vowel in "no", but without the glide (like
Spanish "no")

u
(ju)

u

"oo" as in boot

high back vowel, like vowel in "boot", but without the
glide

a(jaca)

no clear equivalent

Nasalization occurs when the soft palate
is down so that air can go through the nose (as well as through the
mouth). English and Spanish use nasalization to distinguish sounds
only for consonants m, n, ñ, ng). (Although some people and
dialects routinely pronounce vowels in a nasalized fashion, these are
not spoken as distinct and contrasting sounds.)

Practice nasalization in 3 steps,
but do not overemphasize nasalization in context!

Put an "n" in front of the vowel (na, ne, ni, no,
nu), and prolonging the
nasalization of the "n" into the vowel sound.

Put an "n" after the vowel (an, en, in,
on, un), and practicing
prenasalizing the vowel before the "n".

Practice nasalizing the vowels by themselves (a, e, i,
o, u).

Again, note that nasalization is clearly present/audible in Cabécar
speech, but it is not obnoxiously overemphasized!

e(mike)

i(jibäkä)

o(jóo)

u(pju)

ä
(ditsä)

no equivalent

lax mid central vowel, between the vowels in the following pairs:
"tick" and "took", "kick" and "cook". The lips should not be
rounded, but are relaxed and fairly close together. The tongue is
higher than the lax English vowel "uh" in "but".

This is a very important vowel, because it occurs all over the place!

ö
(cöchi)

N/A

"oo" as in book

lax mid back vowel, , between like vowel in "brook" and "broke"

The "height" and "front/central/back" position descriptions above refer to
the highest point of the tongue when making these vowels. Using these
designations, we can put the vowels in a position chart:

Listen to all vowels:

front

central

back

high

i,i

u,u

mid

e,e

ä

ö,o,o

low

a,a

Vowels are indicated as long (in duration) when they are written twice: aa,
ii, etc.